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The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario returned to the bargaining table Monday – a move hailed as progress by Premier Kathleen Wynne and Education Minister Liz Sandals – but union negotiators quit the meeting after deciding nothing had changed.

In a statement, ETFO president Sam Hammond said the union returned to bargaining at the request of a mediator but the government and the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association continue to demand concessions of public elementary teachers.

“ETFO will continue phase one of its work-to-rule strike action,” Hammond said. “In order for real progress to be made at the central table, OPSBA and the Liberal government need to reconsider their concession-based approach to central bargaining.

“When these concessions were initially tabled, OPSBA and the government stated that they were ‘opening positions’ only. ETFO would like to move beyond opening positions to meaningful bargaining.”

Public elementary teachers across Ontario began an “administrative” work-to-rule campaign Monday that involves a refusal to participate in EQAO student testing and professional development.

Teachers will provide grades for report cards but not comments.

In addition to ETFO job actions, local chapters of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) are on strike, closing public high schools in Durham, Peel and Sudbury.

Sandals said she is prepared to act if there’s a ruling that the school year is in jeopardy for students in those school boards, but refused to say if she would bring in back-to-work legislation.

Wynne said she didn’t know the details of the what occurred at the bargaining table with ETFO, nor would she discuss them if she did.

“But what I know for both the secondary and elementary teachers and support staff is that we want them all in the classroom, that we want them to be able to do their jobs fully,” Wynne said. “And so whatever has to happen in terms of getting back to the table and having those discussions, I am encouraging all sides to do that. That’s the only way we’re going to find an agreement.”

Wynne would not confirm or deny ETFO’s claims that teachers are being asked to make concessions.

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